Performing an action on a social networking system based on a content identifier embedded in provided content

ABSTRACT

A content source provides metadata associated with content, such as an audio signal or video data, to a social networking system. The metadata identifies characteristics of the content or specifies an action for the social networking system to perform. A content identifier associated with the metadata is generated by the social networking system, and an association between the content identifier and the metadata is stored. The content identifier is provided to the content source, which encodes the content identifier into the content (e.g., as a watermark). When a client device receives the content encoded with the content identifier, the content identifier is extracted and communicated to the social networking system in connection with a user account associated with the client device. Based on the content identifier, the social networking system retrieves the corresponding metadata and performs an action in connection with the user account based on the metadata.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a divisional application of U.S. application Ser.No. 13/933,585 filed Jul. 2, 2013, which is hereby incorporated byreference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

This invention relates generally to retrieving information associatedwith retrieved content, and more specifically to performing an actionbased on information embedded in content.

Real-time identification of audio signals is being increasingly used invarious applications. For example, many systems use various audio signalidentification schemes to identify the name, artist, and/or album of anunknown song. Currently, various audio signal identification schemeshave been developed. In one class of schemes, an audio fingerprint isgenerated for an audio signal, where the audio fingerprint includescharacteristic information about the audio signal usable for identifyingthe audio signal. The characteristic information about the audio signalmay be based on acoustical and perceptual properties of the audiosignal. To identify an audio signal, an audio fingerprint generated fromthe audio signal is compared to a database of reference audiofingerprints.

However, a content provider may wish to provide additional informationto users receiving content. For example, the content provider may seekto provide information about the content provider or disseminateinformation about the content provider or content to other users.Conventional audio fingerprints merely allow a content provider topresent information describing an audio signal or other content, and donot allow a content provider to supplement the identificationinformation with other functionality.

SUMMARY

A content source associates metadata with content provided by thecontent source. For example, the metadata identifies an artist orcreator of the content, a location associated with the content orcontent source, an identifier of the content source. The metadata mayinclude information associated with one or more actions to be performedby a social networking system when a social networking system userreceives the content via a client device. For example, the metadataidentifies an action for the social networking system to perform andincludes information for performing the action. Examples of actionsidentified by the metadata include executing an application identifiedby the metadata, storing data identified by the metadata, communicatingdata identified by the metadata to users of the social networkingsystem, identifying an advertisement based on information in themetadata, and associating the user with a location identified by themetadata.

The content source provides the metadata associated with the content tothe social networking system, which generates a content identifieruniquely identifying the metadata. An association between the metadataand the content identifier is stored by the social networking system,and the content identifier is communicated to the content source. Thecontent source embeds the content identifier into its correspondingcontent (e.g., as a watermark) and provides the content to a clientdevice. For example, the content source broadcasts an audio signalencoded with the content identifier.

When a client device associated with a user of the social networkingsystem receives the content, the client device extracts the contentidentifier from the content. For example, an application associated withthe social networking system and executing on the client device extractsthe content identifier from the content. The extracted contentidentifier is communicated from the client device to the socialnetworking system, which retrieves the metadata associated with thecontent identifier. If the metadata specifies an action, the socialnetworking system performs the action specified by the metadata andcommunicates data describing or generated by the action to the clientdevice or to additional social networking system users.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a system environment in which a socialnetworking system operates, in accordance with an embodiment of theinvention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a social networking system, in accordancewith an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3 is an interaction diagram of a method for performing an actionbased on a content identifier included in content received by a clientdevice, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

The figures depict various embodiments of the present invention forpurposes of illustration only. One skilled in the art will readilyrecognize from the following discussion that alternative embodiments ofthe structures and methods illustrated herein may be employed withoutdeparting from the principles of the invention described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION System Architecture

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a system environment 100 for a socialnetworking system 140. The system environment 100 shown by FIG. 1comprises one or more client devices 110, a network 120, a contentsource 135, one or more third-party systems 130, and the socialnetworking system 140. In alternative configurations, different and/oradditional components may be included in the system environment 100. Theembodiments described herein can be adapted to online systems that arenot social networking systems.

The client devices 110 are one or more computing devices capable ofreceiving user input as well as transmitting and/or receiving data viathe network 120. In one embodiment, a client device 110 is aconventional computer system, such as a desktop or a laptop computer.Alternatively, a client device 110 may be a device having computerfunctionality, such as a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobiletelephone, a smartphone or another suitable device. A client device 110is configured to communicate via the network 120. In one embodiment, aclient device 110 executes an application allowing a user of the clientdevice 110 to interact with the social networking system 140. Forexample, a client device 110 executes a browser application to enableinteraction between the client device 110 and the social networkingsystem 140 via the network 120. In another embodiment, a client device110 interacts with the social networking system 140 through anapplication programming interface (API) running on a native operatingsystem of the client device 110, such as IOS® or ANDROID™.

Additionally, a client device 110 may include one or more audio capturedevices, such as one or more microphones, configured to capture audiodata from an environment surrounding the client device 110. A clientdevice 110 may also include one or more image capture devices. Forexample, the client device 110 includes a camera or video recordingdevice. This allows a client device 110 to capture audio and/or videocontent from an environment surrounding the client device 110. Forexample, the client device 110 captures audio or video data provided bya content source 135 using an audio capture device or an image capturedevice, respectively. Further, the client device 110 includes one ormore applications that extract information from received content. Forexample, an application associated with the social networking system 140is executed by the client device 110 to extract a content identifierfrom content received by the client device 110 and to communicate thecontent identifier to the social networking system 140.

The client devices 110 are configured to communicate via the network120, which may comprise any combination of local area and/or wide areanetworks, using both wired and/or wireless communication systems. In oneembodiment, the network 120 uses standard communications technologiesand/or protocols. For example, the network 120 includes communicationlinks using technologies such as Ethernet, 802.11, worldwideinteroperability for microwave access (WiMAX), 3G, 4G, code divisionmultiple access (CDMA), digital subscriber line (DSL), etc. Examples ofnetworking protocols used for communicating via the network 120 includemultiprotocol label switching (MPLS), transmission controlprotocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP), hypertext transport protocol(HTTP), simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP), and file transfer protocol(FTP). Data exchanged over the network 120 may be represented using anysuitable format, such as hypertext markup language (HTML) or extensiblemarkup language (XML). In some embodiments, all or some of thecommunication links of the network 120 may be encrypted using anysuitable technique or techniques.

One or more third party systems 130 may be coupled to the network 120for communicating with the social networking system 140, which isfurther described below in conjunction with FIG. 2. In one embodiment, athird party system 130 is an application provider communicatinginformation describing applications for execution by a client device 110or communicating data to client devices 110 for use by an applicationexecuting on the client device. In other embodiments, a third partysystem 130 provides content or other information for presentation via aclient device 110. A third party system 130 may also communicateinformation to the social networking system 140, such as advertisements,content, or information about an application provided by the third partysystem 130.

The content source 135 provides content to a client device 110 using anysuitable channel. For example, the content source 135 is any entitysuitable for generating audio or a representation of audio, such as aspeakers of a mobile device, speakers of a stereo or other deviceproducing audio content, a desktop computer transmitting representing ofa song, or other suitable entity generating audio. As another example,the content source 135 is any entity suitable for generating video orimage data, such as a computer display, a television, a display deviceof a mobile device, an image, or any other suitable entity presentingvideo or image data.

As further described above in conjunction with FIG. 3, the contentsource 135 may specify metadata describing one or more characteristicsof the content. For example, the metadata identifies an artist orcreator of the content, a location associated with the content orcontent source 135, an identifier of the content source 135.Additionally, the metadata may include information associated with oneor more actions performed by the social networking system 140. Forexample, the metadata identifies an action for the social networkingsystem 140 to perform and includes information for performing theaction. Examples of actions identified by the metadata include executingan application identified by the metadata, storing data identified bythe metadata, communicating data identified by the metadata to users ofthe social networking system 140, identifying an advertisement based oninformation in the metadata, and associating the user with a locationidentified by the metadata. As described further in conjunction withFIG. 3, the content source 135 identifies the metadata to the socialnetworking system 140 and receives a content identifier that the socialnetworking system 140 uses to retrieve the metadata. The content source135 embeds the content identifier into its corresponding content,allowing a client device 110 to extract the content identifier andcommunicate the content identifier to the social networking system 140,which provides the client device 110 with information based on themetadata associated with the content identifier.

FIG. 2 is an example block diagram of an architecture of the socialnetworking system 140. The social networking system 140 shown in FIG. 2includes a user profile store 205, a content store 210, an action logger215, an action log 220, an edge store 225, and a web server 230. Inother embodiments, the social networking system 140 may includeadditional, fewer, or different components for various applications.Conventional components such as network interfaces, security functions,load balancers, failover servers, management and network operationsconsoles, and the like are not shown so as to not obscure the details ofthe system architecture.

Each user of the social networking system 140 is associated with a userprofile, which is stored in the user profile store 205. A user profileincludes declarative information about the user that was explicitlyshared by the user and may also include profile information inferred bythe social networking system 140. In one embodiment, a user profileincludes multiple data fields, each describing one or more attributes ofthe corresponding social networking system user. Examples of informationstored in a user profile include biographic, demographic, and othertypes of descriptive information, such as work experience, educationalhistory, gender, hobbies or preferences, location and the like. A userprofile may also store other information provided by the user, forexample, images or videos. In certain embodiments, images of users maybe tagged with information identifying the social networking systemusers displayed in an image. A user profile in the user profile store205 may also maintain references to actions by the corresponding userperformed on content items in the content store 210 and stored in theaction log 220.

While user profiles in the user profile store 205 are frequentlyassociated with individuals, allowing individuals to interact with eachother via the social networking system 140, user profiles may also bestored for entities such as businesses or organizations. This allows anentity to establish a presence on the social networking system 140 forconnecting and exchanging content with other social networking systemusers. The entity may post information about itself, about its productsor provide other information to users of the social networking systemusing a brand page associated with the entity's user profile. Otherusers of the social networking system may connect to the brand page toreceive information posted to the brand page or to receive informationfrom the brand page. A user profile associated with the brand page mayinclude information about the entity itself, providing users withbackground or informational data about the entity.

The content store 210 stores objects that each represent various typesof content. Examples of content represented by an object include a pagepost, a status update, a photograph, a video, a link, a shared contentitem, a gaming application achievement, a check-in event at a localbusiness, a brand page, or any other type of content. Social networkingsystem users may create objects stored by the content store 210, such asstatus updates, photos tagged by users to be associated with otherobjects in the social networking system, events, groups or applications.In some embodiments, objects are received from third-party applicationsor third-party applications separate from the social networking system140. In one embodiment, objects in the content store 210 representsingle pieces of content, or content “items.” Hence, social networkingsystem users are encouraged to communicate with each other by postingtext and content items of various types of media to the socialnetworking system 140 through various communication channels. Thisincreases the amount of interaction of users with each other andincreases the frequency with which users interact within the socialnetworking system 140.

The action logger 215 receives communications about user actionsinternal to and/or external to the social networking system 140,populating the action log 220 with information about user actions.Examples of actions include adding a connection to another user, sendinga message to another user, uploading an image, reading a message fromanother user, viewing content associated with another user, andattending an event posted by another user. In addition, a number ofactions may involve an object and one or more particular users, so theseactions are associated with those users as well and stored in the actionlog 220.

The action log 220 may be used by the social networking system 140 totrack user actions on the social networking system 140, as well asactions on third party systems 130 that communicate information to thesocial networking system 140. Users may interact with various objects onthe social networking system 140, and information describing theseinteractions is stored in the action log 220. Examples of interactionswith objects include: commenting on posts, sharing links, checking-in tophysical locations via a mobile device, accessing content items, and anyother suitable interactions. Additional examples of interactions withobjects on the social networking system 140 that are included in theaction log 220 include: commenting on a photo album, communicating witha user, establishing a connection with an object, joining an event,joining a group, creating an event, authorizing an application, using anapplication, expressing a preference for an object (“liking” theobject), and engaging in a transaction. Additionally, the action log 220may record a user's interactions with advertisements on the socialnetworking system 140 as well as with other applications operating onthe social networking system 140. In some embodiments, data from theaction log 220 is used to infer interests or preferences of a user,augmenting the interests included in the user's user profile andallowing a more complete understanding of user preferences.

The action log 220 may also store user actions taken on a third partysystem 130, such as an external website, and communicated to the socialnetworking system 140. For example, an e-commerce website may recognizea user of a social networking system 140 through a social plug-inenabling the e-commerce website to identify the user of the socialnetworking system 140. Because users of the social networking system 140are uniquely identifiable, e-commerce websites, such as in the precedingexample, may communicate information about a user's actions outside ofthe social networking system 140 to the social networking system 140 forassociation with the user. Hence, the action log 220 may recordinformation about actions users perform on a third party system 130,including webpage viewing histories, advertisements that were engaged,purchases made, and other patterns from shopping and buying.

In one embodiment, the edge store 225 stores information describingconnections between users and other objects on the social networkingsystem 140 as edges. Some edges may be defined by users, allowing usersto specify their relationships with other users. For example, users maygenerate edges with other users that parallel the users' real-liferelationships, such as friends, co-workers, partners, and so forth.Other edges are generated when users interact with objects in the socialnetworking system 140, such as expressing interest in a page on thesocial networking system 140, sharing a link with other users of thesocial networking system 140, and commenting on posts made by otherusers of the social networking system 140.

In one embodiment, an edge may include various features eachrepresenting characteristics of interactions between users, interactionsbetween users and objects, or interactions between objects. For example,features included in an edge describe rate of interaction between twousers, how recently two users have interacted with each other, the rateor amount of information retrieved by one user about an object, or thenumber and types of comments posted by a user about an object. Thefeatures may also represent information describing a particular objector user. For example, a feature may represent the level of interest thata user has in a particular topic, the rate at which the user logs intothe social networking system 140, or information describing demographicinformation about a user. Each feature may be associated with a sourceobject or user, a target object or user, and a feature value. A featuremay be specified as an expression based on values describing the sourceobject or user, the target object or user, or interactions between thesource object or user and target object or user; hence, an edge may berepresented as one or more feature expressions.

The edge store 225 also stores information about edges, such as affinityscores for objects, interests, and other users. Affinity scores, or“affinities,” may be computed by the social networking system 140 overtime to approximate a user's interest in an object or another user inthe social networking system 140 based on the actions performed by theuser. A user's affinity may be computed by the social networking system140 over time to approximate a user's interest for an object, interest,or other user in the social networking system 140 based on the actionsperformed by the user. Computation of affinity is further described inU.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/978,265, filed on Dec. 23, 2010,U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/690,254, filed on Nov. 30, 2012,U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/689,969, filed on Nov. 30, 2012, andU.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/690,088, filed on Nov. 30, 2012,each of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.Multiple interactions between a user and a specific object may be storedas a single edge in the edge store 225, in one embodiment.Alternatively, each interaction between a user and a specific object isstored as a separate edge. In some embodiments, connections betweenusers may be stored in the user profile store 205, or the user profilestore 205 may access the edge store 225 to determine connections betweenusers.

The web server 230 links the social networking system 140 via thenetwork 120 to the one or more client devices 110, as well as to the oneor more third party systems 130. The web server 230 serves web pages, aswell as other content, such as JAVA®, FLASH®, XML and so forth. The webserver 230 may receive and route messages between the social networkingsystem 140 and the client device 110, for example, instant messages,queued messages (e.g., email), text messages, short message service(SMS) messages, or messages sent using any other suitable messagingtechnique. A user may send a request to the web server 230 to uploadinformation (e.g., images or videos) that are stored in the contentstore 210. Additionally, the web server 230 may provide applicationprogramming interface (API) functionality to send data directly tonative client device operating systems, such as IOS®, ANDROID™, WEBOS®or RIM®.

Performing an Action Based on Received Content

FIG. 3 is an interaction diagram of one embodiment of a method forperforming an action based on a content identifier included in contentreceived by a client device 110. A content provider 135 provides 305metadata associated with content, such as an audio signal or video data,to a social networking system 140 via a network 120. The metadatadescribes one or more characteristics of the content and may identify anaction associated with the content. For example, the metadata identifiesa source of the content, a location associated with the content, a titleassociated with the content, an artist associated with the content, orany other information describing the content. Additionally, the metadatamay identify an action for the social networking system 140 to performand one or more characteristics of the action. For example, the metadatamay identify a check-in action and include a location associated withthe check-in or may identify an action to distribute informationdescribing content to social networking system users and specify theinformation to be distributed. Hence, the social networking system 140may associate an action with the received metadata.

The social networking system 140 generates 310 a content identifieruniquely identifying the metadata and its associated content andtransmits 315 the content identifier to the content source 135 via thenetwork 120. Additionally, the social networking system 140 stores 320the metadata, the content identifier and an association between thecontent identifier and the metadata. For example, the social networkingsystem 140 maintains a table in the content store 210 including pairs ofcontent identifiers and associated metadata. This allows the socialnetworking system 130 to efficiently subsequently retrieve metadataassociated with a content identifier.

In some embodiments, the content source provides 305 multiple items ofmetadata associated with content to the social networking system 140,and the social networking system generates 310 different contentidentifiers associated with each item of metadata. The different contentidentifiers are transmitted 315 to the content source via the network120 and stored by the social networking system 140 in association withtheir respective item of metadata. This allows the content source toembed 325 multiple content identifiers in the content when it isprovided 330 to a client device 110. For example, a content identifierembedded 325 in the content corresponds to an audio fingerprintidentifying the content while a different content identifier embedded325 in the content corresponds to metadata identifying the contentsource 135 or identifying a type of channel used to provide 330 thecontent to the client device 110. Including multiple content identifiersin content allows the content provider 130 to convey a variety ofinformation describing the content or to identify a variety of actionsto be performed when the content is identified by a user.

Upon receiving the content identifier from the social networking system140, the content source 135 embeds 325 the content identifier into thecontent. When the content provider 135 subsequently provides 330 thecontent to a client device 110 associated with a user of the socialnetworking system 140, the content identifier is provided 330 to theclient device 110 along with the content. For example, if the contentsource 135 is generating an audio signal with an embedded contentidentifier, the client device 110 captures the audio signal via one ormore microphones and an application executing on the client device 110processes the audio signal and extracts 335 the content identifier. Asanother example, if the content source 135 is presenting video data, theclient device 110 captures the video data through an image capturedevice and an application execution on the client device extracts 335the content identifier from the video data.

The client device 110 transmits 340 the extracted content identifier tothe social networking system 140 via the network 120, and the socialnetworking system 140 retrieves 345 stored metadata associated with thecontent identifier. For example, the social networking system 140identifies a pair of content identifier and metadata from the contentstore 210 using the extracted content identifier. Based on the retrievedmetadata, the social networking system 140 performs 350 an action.Information describing the action or generated by the action may alsocommunicated from the social networking system 140 to the client device110 or to additional client devices 110.

Various actions may be performed 350 by the social networking system 140based on the retrieved metadata, allowing a content provider 135 toinfluence user interaction by providing the social networking system 140with metadata associated with content. For example, the socialnetworking system 140 identifies an application from the metadata andexecutes the application when the content identifier is received.Information from the application may be presented via the client device110 to a user. As another example, the social networking system 140 usesthe metadata to select an advertisement and subsequently presents theselected advertisement via the client device 110. Additionally, thesocial networking system 140 may retrieve information describing thecontent (e.g., location, artist, title, synopsis, etc.) from themetadata and use the retrieved information to perform an action alsoidentified by the metadata. For example, the social networking system140 may notify other users connected to the user of the client device110 of the user and information describing the content from themetadata. As another example, the social networking system 140 maypresent an interface to the user of the client device 110 includinginformation retrieved from the metadata, allowing the user to augmentthe information with additional data. Additional examples of actions forthe social networking system to perform 350 based on metadata associatedwith a received content identifier are described in U.S. Pat. No.8,250,145, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Summary

The foregoing description of the embodiments of the invention has beenpresented for the purpose of illustration; it is not intended to beexhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed.Persons skilled in the relevant art can appreciate that manymodifications and variations are possible in light of the abovedisclosure.

Some portions of this description describe the embodiments of theinvention in terms of algorithms and symbolic representations ofoperations on information. These algorithmic descriptions andrepresentations are commonly used by those skilled in the dataprocessing arts to convey the substance of their work effectively toothers skilled in the art. These operations, while describedfunctionally, computationally, or logically, are understood to beimplemented by computer programs or equivalent electrical circuits,microcode, or the like. Furthermore, it has also proven convenient attimes, to refer to these arrangements of operations as modules, withoutloss of generality. The described operations and their associatedmodules may be embodied in software, firmware, hardware, or anycombinations thereof.

Any of the steps, operations, or processes described herein may beperformed or implemented with one or more hardware or software modules,alone or in combination with other devices. In one embodiment, asoftware module is implemented with a computer program productcomprising a computer-readable medium containing computer program code,which can be executed by a computer processor for performing any or allof the steps, operations, or processes described.

Embodiments of the invention may also relate to an apparatus forperforming the operations herein. This apparatus may be speciallyconstructed for the required purposes, and/or it may comprise ageneral-purpose computing device selectively activated or reconfiguredby a computer program stored in the computer. Such a computer programmay be stored in a non-transitory, tangible computer readable storagemedium, or any type of media suitable for storing electronicinstructions, which may be coupled to a computer system bus.Furthermore, any computing systems referred to in the specification mayinclude a single processor or may be architectures employing multipleprocessor designs for increased computing capability.

Embodiments of the invention may also relate to a product that isproduced by a computing process described herein. Such a product maycomprise information resulting from a computing process, where theinformation is stored on a non-transitory, tangible computer readablestorage medium and may include any embodiment of a computer programproduct or other data combination described herein.

Finally, the language used in the specification has been principallyselected for readability and instructional purposes, and it may not havebeen selected to delineate or circumscribe the inventive subject matter.It is therefore intended that the scope of the invention be limited notby this detailed description, but rather by any claims that issue on anapplication based hereon. Accordingly, the disclosure of the embodimentsof the invention is intended to be illustrative, but not limiting, ofthe scope of the invention, which is set forth in the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method comprising: generating one or more items of metadata associated with content, the metadata describing one or more characteristics of the content; transmitting the metadata to a communication system; receiving one or more content identifiers from the communication system, each content identifier associated with an item of metadata; embedding one or more of the received content identifiers in the content; and providing the content with the embedded one or more received content identifiers to a client device associated with a user of the communication system.
 2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the content comprises an audio signal.
 3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the content comprises video data.
 4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the one or more characteristics of the content comprises one or more actions for the communication system to perform.
 5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the one or more actions are selected from a group consisting of: executing an application identified by the metadata, storing data identified by the metadata to the communication system, communicating data identified by the metadata to one or more additional users of the communication system, identifying an advertisement based on information in the metadata, associating the user with a location identified by the metadata, and any combination thereof.
 6. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions to be executed by a computer processor of computer system to carry out the steps of: generating one or more items of metadata associated with content, the metadata describing one or more characteristics of the content; transmitting the metadata to a communication system; receiving one or more content identifiers from the communication system, each content identifier associated with an item of metadata; embedding one or more of the received content identifiers in the content; and providing the content with the embedded one or more received content identifiers to a client device associated with a user of the communication system.
 7. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 6, wherein the content comprises an audio signal.
 8. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 6, wherein the content comprises video data.
 9. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 6, wherein the one or more characteristics of the content comprises one or more actions for the communication system to perform.
 10. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the one or more actions are selected from a group consisting of: executing an application identified by the metadata, storing data identified by the metadata to the communication system, communicating data identified by the metadata to one or more additional users of the communication system, identifying an advertisement based on information in the metadata, associating the user with a location identified by the metadata, and any combination thereof.
 11. A system comprising: a computer processor; and a computer-readable storage medium coupled to the computer processor, the computer-readable storage medium storing executable code, the code when executed by the computer processor performs steps comprising: generating one or more items of metadata associated with content, the metadata describing one or more characteristics of the content, transmitting the metadata to a communication system, receiving one or more content identifiers from the communication system, each content identifier associated with an item of metadata, embedding one or more of the received content identifiers in the content, and providing the content with the embedded one or more received content identifiers to a client device associated with a user of the communication system.
 12. The system of claim 11, wherein the content comprises an audio signal.
 13. The system of claim 11, wherein the content comprises video data.
 14. The system of claim 11, wherein the one or more characteristics of the content comprises one or more actions for the communication system to perform.
 15. The system of claim 14, wherein the one or more actions are selected from a group consisting of: executing an application identified by the metadata, storing data identified by the metadata to the communication system, communicating data identified by the metadata to one or more additional users of the communication system, identifying an advertisement based on information in the metadata, associating the user with a location identified by the metadata, and any combination thereof. 